The Gordon Research Conference on Periodontal Diseases will be held February 23-28, 2003 at Clarion Ventura Beach Hotel, Ventura, California. The mission of the Gordon Research Conferences is "To promote growth, development, and open communication of frontier developments in science among investigators, young scientists in development, and other persons responsible for the growth of science." The specific aim of this application is to provide funding for travel and the fixed conference fee for speakers and session moderators, and partial support for young investigators to participate in the Gordon Research Conference on Periodontal Diseases. The program conference itself comprises oral presentations relating to periodontology in the topic areas of impact of microbial genomics on understanding pathogenesis, virulence characteristics of oral microorganisms as a community, interactions of diabetes and periodontal disease, influence of obesity on periodontitis and role of lipids and hyperglycemia on inflammation, and the new advances in bone biology in terms of molecular signals in remodeling and inflammatory modulation of bone mass. In the final section there will be a discussion on how these new findings alter our definition of periodontal disease as a systemic exposure and the impact of genomics on establishing new syndromes of disease. Emphasis will be placed on introducing junior investigators to the established research community. This will be facilitated by including a junior investigator forum within each of the nine scientific sessions. Speakers and participants for this conference are admitted based upon Gordon Conference policies; the chair and co-chair are responsible for selecting speakers who are at the cutting edge of their respective disciplines, and conferees are selected based upon an application that details their activities and interests in the field. Sessions will include oral and poster presentations.